presidency key terms

Question 1

domestic issues

Answer 1

Issues within the USA that directly concern citizens, e.g. healthcare, gun control, racial issues.

Question 2

electoral mandate

Answer 2

An electoral mandate is the permission granted to a political leader or winning party to govern and act on their behalf, e.g. to President Obama in 2008 and 2012. The mandate is more or less in effect for as long as the government is in power.

Question 3

exec orders

Answer 3

Official documents issued by the executive branch with the force of law, through which the president directs federal officials to take certain actions. Since the 1900s executive orders have been numbered and recorded in the Federal Register.

Question 4

imperial presidency

Answer 4

A dominant presidency with ineffective checks and balances from the other branches.

Question 5

imperilled presidency

Answer 5

This is the contrasting theory to that of an imperial presidency - it is claimed that the president does not have enough power to be effective.

Question 6

informal powers

Answer 6

Powers of the president not listed in the Constitution but taken anyway.

Question 7

powers of persuasion

Answer 7

This is an informal power of the president in which they can use the prestige of their job, and other bargaining methods in order to get people to do as they wish.